


Long after you were gone

by avengingwinchesterangels



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, I Made Myself Cry, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Letters, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 18:09:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5835661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avengingwinchesterangels/pseuds/avengingwinchesterangels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky was gone. Steve can't cope with that. Bucky was his other half. Now Steve is nothing more than a Ghost in the tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long after you were gone

I've been locked away so long but there are things I could never forget. Your warmth curled around me as we tried so hard to defy Brooklyn's freezing winters. The way your chest would rattle as you tried to breathe around the latest bout of sickness. That last kiss taken before I shipped out to basic and came home to you still me but also different. The anguish on your face as I fell, I could see your heart already breaking. Counterpoint to that is your bliss as we lay in a post coital pile not bothering to figure out where you ended and I began. 'I'm with you to the end of the line.' It was also our synchronicity as we fought together destroying Hydra. The way you trusted and still trust me with your six. The way you fought through enemy lines to bring me home to you because you thought there was a chance no matter how slim that I was still alive. I fought Hydra after they pulled me from the river because I knew you were still alive and taking them down in my fallen name. After you were rumored dead I gave up resisting because these things I cannot forget follow me even when I know not my name anymore. I always knew that old saying was wrong. It is better to have never known love than to have known it and lost. I have done things that will haunt me to my dying day but I refuse to feel guilt over it. I feel guilt over one thing only and that is never saying 'I love you' enough. But then again maybe it never needed saying 'I'm with you til the end of the line' was enough for you. If I die tomorrow in our last big showdown with Hydra, promise me you'll fight on. Just like you did when I fell from the train. You'll fight for all those who never came home from war. You'll fight injustice of any form in my name. Don't give up and let life pass you by. Get involved and fight with the times. Make friends and don't worry. I pray to whatever God exists you never read this but if you are I will see you then. 

Love,  
Bucky

lost in the Avenger's tower there came a scream. It was torn from an unwilling throat. It was anguish and loss. The scream of a man who had just been broken. Everyone in the Tower knew there was nothing they could do. They knew he had just gotten the news and the letter. 

For days he was never seen and barely heard. Every now and then you could hear his sobs as he tried to sleep. Often he was found wandering the tower. The only time he came alive was on the field. To this day they still speak of Captain America and how he would cry his way through battle always hoping that fight was the fight to put him out of his misery. 

He was a broken man and nothing could fix him. Long after the Avenger's were gone and the new recruits trained and let out on their own they spoke of the ghost of the Tower. You would see him from time to time; eyes a dull blue, nothing like his lover's, so the stories go. You wonder about him. Often times you find sketchbooks stashed in the vents. They were full of drawings of another man. 

Three decades had come and gone since the death of the Winter Solider. It was the anniversary of his death. Stories were always told of how the ghost of the tower was nigh on inconsolable on this day. You have seen him fight in battle. It was hard to reconcile the righteous man you saw in battle with the broken man before you. 

You had stumbled across him in the hall. He held a knife in his hand. It had his name engraved in the hilt. He was spinning the knife in his hands like he was trying to make up his mind. You walked closer to see the gun laying beside him. After a moment you realize there is a knife beside the gun. That knife had the Winter Solider's name engraved upon it. 

You sit beside the broken man and start to tell stories of your brother and how he was your everything for so long you forgot what life was like until the day he enlisted. It was thanks to him you got into the Avenger's program. You show him the paired set of knife and gun he had gotten you before his last deployment. You tell him how you struggled with getting through his death and how no matter who you met no man would ever compare to him. 

Long after the Tower had settled for the night you sat beside this broken man and showed him all the ways you were broken as well. Finally he looks up from the knife in his hand and stands. He hands you several things before saying “Take care of our legacy. Fight for your brother. Fight on for all those who never came home from war. Tell our story as well as your own and never forget your brother loved you. My fight is over. I have passed on my legacy to you. Take up our mantle and fight for those who cannot fight, for those who are lost to the ice. Do not let history forget us as we were called in our day. He was a hero and he deserves to be remembered as such.” his voice was hoarse from so long without speaking. 

He turned to go and said “I loved him before he became what he was and I loved him after. This is the end of my line. Keep it safe.” he walked away from you and faded into the darkness. Sitting on the ground where he had been was the knives and the gun and a folder that had classified written all over it. Inside everything was unredacted. It was the whole truth about them. 

The next day you realize he is gone. He's buried beside the Winter Solider with full honors. You flinch with every gunshot but know they are together again finally. He was finally at peace. 

To this day you tell stories of the Winter Solider and Captain America. You still have the knives and gun. They sit locked in a box over your mantle next to both letters. In a box under your bed was the file he had left you. You tell the story to your children and they keep passing it down. Long after you are gone your family still tells the story of the Winter Solider and Captain America.  
FIN


End file.
